Three big all-round efforts characterised this match – 2 from Pakistan, 1 from Bangladesh (which is what clinched it finally). Bangladesh’s solo star (the most expected name – their greatest ODI player in history) could not quite finish the match. Bangladesh will need to find other stars too if they are to compete in this tournament.

The match through Impact Index.

Observations:Mohammed Hafeez was rightly declared the man of the match as he had the highest Match Impact (7.45*). Not only did he have the highest overall impact, his individual Batting (4.22) and Bowling Impact (3.23) were also the highest in the entire match.

Hafeez’s knock of 89 runs, which included an opening stand of 135 runs (Partnership Building Impact) with Jamshed, gave the Pakistanis a solid start upfront. While bowling, Hafeez took two wickets in the space of two deliveries to push the Bangladeshis on their back foot and was the only bowler other than Gul to have a Pressure Impact in the match.

Along with Mohammed Hafeez, two more all-round performances in the match from Shakib Al Hasan and Umar Gul were the other two highest Impact performances in the match.

Umar Gul in particular was the surprise package as he came in at 198-7 (Pressure Impact) and absorbed pressure while scoring a quickfire 35 runs off 21 balls (Batting Impact 2.66). His Strike Rate Impact was also the highest amongst all the batsmen in the match. While bowling, Umar Gul again was the major tormentor as he came in at the death to spark a late Bangladeshi batting collapse starting with wicket of Nasir Hossain (Partnership Breaking Impact).

For the Bangladeshis, Shakib Al Hasan (the highest impact bowler and batsman, both, for Bangladesh in their ODI history – the only player in ODIs for any country to achieve this) was, after a fashion, their best performer with an all-round match impact of 7.27. While bowling he had the best economy impact amongst all the Bangladeshi bowlers and also picked up two wickets in the form of Umar Akmal and Shahid Afridi. While batting he came in at 100-3 (which soon got reduced to 135-5) and absorbed pressure (Pressure Impact) by building partnerships (Partnership Building Impact) with Tamim Iqbal and Nasir Hossain in the middle overs. His batting also had the highest Strike Rate Impact amongst all the Bangladeshi batsmen.

Mahmudullah and Islam for Bangladesh failed to have a Bowling Impact in the match whereas in comparison all the Pakistan bowlers managed to have a Bowling Impact of above 1.

Overall, Pakistan’s Team IMPACT in the match was 2.27 as compared to Bangladesh’s 1.86. It wasn’t quite as close as it might have seemed with Shakib Al Hasan at the crease.

After playing 261 ODI matches in 26 years, Bangladesh touched the biggest heights of their cricketing history on Tuesday night by reaching the final of the Asia Cup for the first time. More »Team Bangladesh create history